Just Checking on My Patient [Feliciano]

Beep! Ludwig glanced down at his watch. It was that time again, wasn’t it? All right, he supposed he ought to get going, then.

Ludwig wasn’t sure why he did this; any other doctor would have probably asked one of the nurses to do it for him, but Ludwig felt he needed to do this himself. Though he’d never admit it to anyone, including his brother, checking on Feliciano every day had somehow gone from a responsibility…to a pleasure. It made him happy to see Feliciano and his sunny smile, to converse with his patient under the guise of business, and to just spend a few moments relaxing.

But, even so, he was still worried they might never diagnose Feliciano’s illness, and the thought plagued him constantly. He’d never told Feliciano this; when the younger man had asked, Ludwig had told him that of course they’d find out what was wrong, of course they’d be able to cure it. He had never lied to a patient before, and it left a strange, writhing feeling in his stomach. He didn’t like lying, especially about matters like these. But, still, his lies comforted Feliciano. And if that was the case, it was okay. It had to be…

He opened the door slightly and peeked in. Feliciano appeared to be asleep, but with him, you never knew. “Mr. Vargas?” he whispered, just audible enough for someone awake to hear him. “Are you awake?” If not, Ludwig supposed he could go visit his brother and come back later.

Right now was one of the few times in the past few days that Feliciano actually found himself listening to requests from nurses. He hadn't tried to get up, play with any of the machinery in the room, or anything that they thought were bad. Maybe it was all the previous attempts but he was feeling oddly tired. Being tired like that here scared him. Feliciano always thought that if you went to sleep in hospitals, you wouldn't wake up later. It was worse not having someone there to tell him otherwise. Last time he even remembered visiting a place like this...his father never came home.

Feliciano shifted, trying to get comfortable, which was a bit difficult. Hospitals were big, he thought they would have better beds. At least the blankets were nice and soft, and the pillows weren't half that bad. Still, it was always harder to breathe when he laid down for some reason. Feliciano had an extremely short list of things that he didn't like, he wasn't a negative person, but this little (or...big) problem was most certainly on his list. He had just closed his eyes again, trying to think of something else, when he heard something. His name? But he was alone.

Opening his eyes, he looked around until he saw someone in the doorway. A blonde man, that he immediately recognized as one of his doctors from the past few days. This was the one that said he would cure him, of course he recognized him. How could he not? Though he didn't exactly remember his name still. it was something long and German. "I'm awake, see?" he said louder than the doctor himself had originally talked, but still not as loud as he normally would have liked to speak. "Did you come to visit me?" Feliciano smiled at the prospect of a visitor.

Ludwig couldn’t hold back a gasp of surprise at his acknowledgement; he’d honestly thought Feliciano was asleep. Not that he minded. At least this way he could just do what he needed to do now and not have to come back later.

“Good afternoon, then, Mr. Vargas,” he said at a normal volume, finally stepping into his patient’s room. “I’m here to do a quick check-up.” Normally, he would’ve taken a patient to another wing of the hospital for that, but he wasn’t sure Feliciano could handle the trip. He had all the necessary supplies here, anyway, so there was really no need to move him. It would be horribly inefficient, and Ludwig was nothing if not efficient.

He put on a pair of gloves (largely unnecessary, but the last thing he wanted to do was to make Feliciano even sicker) and pulled out his stethoscope, forcing a smile in the Italian’s direction. Why did he do this? He never forced a smile for any other patient; what made Feliciano different? It didn’t matter, he supposed. He was just here for a check-up, nothing more.

“I’m just going to check your heartbeat, blood pressure, etc.,” he continued, trying desperately to remove those thoughts from his head, “and then I’m going to need to ask you a few questions, if that’s all right.” Normally, he wouldn’t have walked through the whole check-up beforehand, but somehow, he felt the need to do it for Feliciano.

"Good afternoon!" he sounded happy enough in return, but as he watched the doctor, he was feeling a bit more nervous with each passing moment. Doctors scared Feliciano. Those gloves really weren't helping his inner thoughts get any better, nor did the words of what he was going to be doing. People had checked all these things on him quite a few times during his stay here already, but he couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness. Sitting up a little bit in bed, he continued to watch the other man carefully.

"Questions are okay but do the other things hurt...?" They hadn't other times, but Feliciano still felt the need to ask. Maybe it was because he was always a bit intimidated at first by people bigger than him. But this doctor said he was going to make him all better, so surely he was nice. He has told himself that countless times during his daydreams in bed to occupy himself and try to make himself more calm. Plus, the doctor has smiled a little! Happy people couldn't be too scary. "Ve, i-if it does, you can go look at someone else or just talk with me!" Feliciano returned the smile, giving the blonde a nervous, but hopeful look.

Ludwig was trying as hard as he could not to pay attention to Feliciano’s reply, as it had taken him a very short period of time to learn that he was powerless to the young man’s pleadings, but he still couldn’t completely shut his ears to the nervous response. He felt as though little needles were stabbing into his heart at Feliciano’s words (which he was certain could not be a good sign, being a cardiologist), and in order to ease his patient’s worries, he replied as gently as he could, “You’ve had check-ups like this one before, Mr. Vargas, so I’m sure you already know it won’t hurt. I just need you to calm down a bit so that I can get accurate readings. If you get too nervous about this, it may cause your heart rate or blood pressure to rise, and if that happens, our information will not be accurate and we won’t be able to diagnose you as quickly.

“Erm, however…” Ludwig wasn’t sure how best to say the next part, so he decided to just be as professional as possible and deal with the results, “…I’m going to need to take some blood so that we can run a few tests. It’s going to pinch a bit, but it will only last for a moment, and it won’t hurt badly at all, all right?” Really, Ludwig was going to have to do it whether it was all right with Feliciano or not, but he still felt the need to ask for permission. It wouldn’t do for his patient to hate him, especially as it seemed he would be Feliciano’s doctor for quite some time.

But why did he even care? A patient was just a patient, someone to whom he offered help because he’d taken an oath to do so. What made Feliciano different? But Ludwig shoved those thoughts away; he had no time for things he didn’t understand. There was far too much to do to get wrapped up in these strange thoughts.

((I am so sorry for leaving you hanging since…August. Wow. That was extremely rude of me, and I promise it won’t happen again.))

Feliciano carefully watched the doctor in front of him, still a bit weary of the man's movements. What he was saying wasn't really helping his nervousness. At first it was alright, but that feeling of nervousness only grew as the blonde kept on talking. He had to take blood? He didn't like the sound of that. Feliciano liked his blood inside his body, not in syringes or any other place where doctors put blood. At least he knew the other male wasn't lying about the checkups, it was just nerves getting the best of him.

With a little whine, the Italian shifted his position in bed, eyes still completely on Doctor Beilschmidt. "Do you have to do that?" he voice was clearly nervous. Like most people his age, he had blood taken before for other reasons, but it wasn't an experience he was keen on repeating if it wasn't absolutely, one hundred percent necessary. "Can't we just do the other kind of checkup then? Without the needles?" Feliciano flashed him a hopeful smile, wanting to try negotiate with him a bit. Even if the blonde had a kind of scary aura about him, but maybe he could make him change his mind if he tried hard enough.

Sitting up in bed now, he figured this would help a little. If he could sit up, that showed that he was perfectly fine and ready to go home! At least, that was from his point of view.

Ludwig shook his head slowly, but firmly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Vargas, but I really do need to take blood today. I need to run those tests to help you, you understand." He didn't add the bit about having waited for way too long to do those tests out of worry at having to take blood from Feliciano, though, because that would have been very unprofessional. Then again, did he not act unprofessional around Feliciano, anyway? But that didn't matter at the moment. What did matter was getting the blood from Feliciano with as little pain and crying as possible, if that was even an option. For his own sake and the sakes if everyone in that wing of the building, Ludwig hoped it was.

"It won't hurt much, though," he promised, pulling out a small needle. Well, it seemed small to him, at least; how it appeared to Feliciano was another matter entirely. "And it will only be for a moment; with this sort of needle, it doesn't take very long. Now, if you would show me your arm, please?" He extended his free hand to Feliciano while with the other he set the needle down and picked up an alcohol pad to disinfect the arm. Oh, Gott, he hoped Feliciano wouldn't make too much of a fuss.

With every word the doctor in front of him said, Feliciano could feel the uneasy feeling in his stomach growing larger and larger. Apparently the other male hadn't taken into consideration that he was fine since he was now sitting up, much to Feliciano's disappointment. Really, he didn't know anything else that he could to do prove it to him. Even if he gave off the aura of being an idiot, he did know that the doctor was right and knew what he was doing more than Feliciano himself did. They wouldn't do any unnecessary tests on him if they really didn't need to.

He could only sit there and watch rather helplessly when the blonde pulled out a needle that he was dreading. Letting out a small whine, his eyes were wide as he stared at it like it was the size of a pencil. The doctor's words were slightly reassuring, but at the same time not. He didn't want that thing in him at all, even if that particular needle was faster somehow. Being forced to have an IV stuck in him at some points was horrifying enough, as many of the people around him probably heard all too often. Now this...

Snapping out of his little trance of staring at the needle, he noticed that it looked like the other males wanted him to take his hand. It was silly, but he found himself staring at the hand. At least the needle wasn't in his hand anymore, which was a bit comforting. Maybe his begging had worked! For a moment, he extended his own pathetically shaking hand to almost meet the doctors, before his eyes grew wide and he quickly retracted it into his own personal space with a small noise of surprise. Feliciano scooted away from the doctor a little in bed, feeling silly as he could feel the start of tears in his eyes. "I don't want to do it! Please don't make me, please?" He really needed to learn to stop being a stubborn cry baby. "I will do anything!"

It wasn’t as though Ludwig wasn’t expecting Feliciano’s minor tantrum, but it still didn’t sit well with him. Not only was it annoying, but it also left a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t accustomed to dealing with children who were frightened of needles. That was the whole reason he had avoided pediatrics like the plague; he hated it when children cried at things like needles. He’d never done that, so he didn’t understand why other kids did. Then again, he’d kind of been trained to be the perfect, silent child, so he supposed he wouldn’t ever understand. That was all right for him.

Ludwig resisted the urge to grab Feliciano’s arm and take the blood before the other man could even notice. Not only was that against protocol, but it also would have been quite rude, and it might have hurt Feliciano, especially because he was unlikely to hold still if Ludwig tried that. He needed to find a way to get Feliciano to hold still, a way to make him feel comfortable with the situation…

And then he suddenly got an idea. It was very unsafe, very stupid, and very against protocol, but Ludwig figured he might as well try the last idea he had, because after that, he would have no idea what to do. If there was a way to make Feliciano comfortable, he might as well give it a shot.

“I promise it won’t hurt much, Mr. Vargas. It’s just a harmless poke, I swear.” He took a step back to appear as unthreatening as possible before rolling up his own sleeve, exposing his forearm. “If it would make you feel better, I could take a bit of blood from myself, first, just to show you how quick and painless it is…” Ludwig had absolutely no idea why he was doing this; he’d been a doctor for long enough to know that this was very idiotic, practically an invitation for infection. But Ludwig wouldn’t let that happen. He’d be very careful, and he’d be sure to use a different needle for Feliciano and change his gloves. Nothing could possibly go wrong…right?

Sitting there, still shaking lightly, he stared at Doctor Beilschmidt rather fearfully. He prayed that he had already begged enough to make the blonde see that there really was no need for him to have any needles in his arm, and that his blood was perfectly fine where it was; in his body. By the way he kept on talking, Feliciano was pretty sure that all his whining was in vain. Even if he didn't want to get his blood drawn, which to him meant he really had to stay on this side of the bed, the other male was really getting his attention now...what was he talking about?

Feliciano was not a doctor. No, he was just a rather eccentric art student at a local college, which was far from a doctor of any sort. This being said, when the man in the room who was a doctor continued speaking, he thought it was a little odd. He looked between the doctor and the new exposed forearm a few times in confusion. As odd as it was, he did find his body relaxing in the slightest. "You would really do that?" Never before had he seen a doctor give themselves a shot before. It really perked up his curiosity.

He let out a small whine once more. "Why would you want to hurt yourself? That is really weird!" Feliciano found a small smile appearing on his face again. Yes, it was odd but maybe seeing someone else get it done first wouldn't make it as bad when he got it done. Well, no, in Feliciano's mind he still wasn't getting his blood drawn. "I want to see you do it first!" He shifted a little in bed, back towards the center of his bed. It wasn't that he didn't trust his doctor, he just really didn't think he would do it. Feliciano really didn't want to see the other man hurt himself.